4/22/11 - 4/24/11

4/22/11
Hooray! Hooray! The compost war is over! For reasons I have not written about my compost ordeal though it has consumed most of my time. Aside from the composting process and it's magical benefits to the soil, the difficulties I've had trying to obtain some aren't entertaining... about as entertaining as my last entry on organic fertilizer. Plus after thinking, talking, and even dreaming about it, the last thing I want to do is write about it. Even though I am in rural NY, I can't seem to find a local farm or nursery to provide me with OG composted manure. I've asked everyone working here, called every store in 50 miles, and even placed a 'compost wanted' ad on Cragislist. Everything was either a million dollars to truck here or just not available. You'd think there would be someone around here that could drop off a dump truck load of finished horse shit for a a good price. In the end I got a discount rate on a pallet of 'the goods' bagged by an organic farm about an hour and a half from here. (I had called them directly and it would have cost $210 just for delivery). I didn't want to deal with throwing away 60 plastic bags, I wanted it in bulk, but it turned out perfect as I unloaded the 40 lb. bags at the end of the garden rows they're to be spread on. Important thing is that it's here and it's beautiful stuff. Organic and fluffy, I swear it may be the best compost I have ever seen. Forget about black gold, I got black diamonds. Now to wait for the rain to stop so I can till it in with some of that Dr. Earth. An organic cocktail for super soil.



4/24/11
Today is Easter. I would love to see a bunny rabbit. More likely I'll see a turkey. I planted some spring flowers in a large cast iron cauldron-like container sitting at the base of our cabins' stairs. I dug the sad lil cedar tree out that was (sorta) living in there. Though it was only 4' tall with like 3 leaves, I felt bad for my thoughts of conveniently throwing it on the burn pile. I figured he survived in a shallow cast iron pot with limited room to grow. Not to mention that metal containers get hot in the summer, & cast iron holds heat pretty darn good. Lil cedar really was living in a cauldron.



I thought about planting him right in front of the house where there's actually enough room to grow to maturity, but didn't think I could stand to look at it everyday off my deck, all Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree looking and slow to recover; especially if he didn't make it. Trees take a long time to die, just as they take a long time to grow.
Instead I went in search of a soft spot, a spot where i wasn't going to have to dig a whole bunch of rocks just to get a 2' hole for lil cedar. I found an old plant graveyard, ( a spot where past gardeners dumped rootballs and soil out from plants that had died) more like a mausoleum because of its mound shape, and planted him right on top. Here he's got a mountain of awesome 'spent' potting soil to grow in, favorable to the rocky clay native soil. If he was meant to survive, this is the place he'll do it.



Back in the cauldron I dug about half of the lifeless 'dirt' out and replaced it with compost. I planted a small pieris I noticed just sitting bareroot next to my garden shack after the snow had melted. Figured he was a survivor! Along with it I planted some flowers I picked up when I was in NJ: white columbine, purple & yellow violas, & a token hyacinth for spring.